MSF staff abused Sudanese refugees in sex-for-food scandal

[IwantToRetire]

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) admits some staff members and external contractors were the subjects of 59 allegations of misconduct, including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, in relation to Sudanese refugees who had fled the civil war in search of safety.

Young girls were exploited in some cases, and often food or jobs were offered in exchange for sex, but an MSF investigation could not verify all 59 allegations.

The offences were committed in eastern Chad and date back to 2024 - about a year into Sudan's still-raging civil war.

MSF says it has sacked 18 culprits but told the AP news agency it was unable to identify some of the other alleged perpetrators, external.

The aid organisation also found patterns of exploitation that might amount to "sexual trafficking", its own internal report suggested in July.

Some of the victims reportedly chose not to speak out about the abuse because they feared access to vital aid would be withheld in retaliation. Those who did report the abuse sometimes received no reply or support, MSF has admitted in its own report, while official complaints procedures were mostly ineffective.

Article continues at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74ykjl8mx3o

Just disgusting that this still happens year after year. So called "compassionate" charities enabling abuse of vulnerable women by men who know how easy it is to exploit those dependent on their "good will".

Sex for food, wtf is wrong with this people?

Thank-you for this link @IwantToRetire. I donate to these guys, will be emailing them with follow-up questions...😞

Another one? FFS!

I always thought MSF were one of the good ones, but it's everywhere, isn't it?

All power tends to corrupt. Absolute power, to corrupt absolutely. There is absolutely nowhere in the world, and no group of people in the world, who are safely assumed to be "the good ones". The evidence to the extensive enquiry into child abuse simply gave up looking at any more religious groups, after investigating 27 of them, and discovering not a single one was abuse-free. Always, always, assume that where there are prey, there will be predators.

Isn't this like Oxfam before in Haiti... You woul hope this would be better watched and safeguarded now!

Oh bloody hell. I thought they were one of the better charities.

MSF went on and on about Israel targeting their hospital before being forced to admit they had known it was a Hamas base for years.

I'm so angry at this. I used to have a direct debit with them which I cancelled after the last scandal.

Looks like it was around 2018 last time
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44523086

https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2788

Predators always go where they can best take advantage of the vulnerable and now that the political climate in Western societies is hampering effective safeguarding it creates so many loopholes these evil men can use.

I've got to the point where I don't trust any of these big charities.

Me neither @UtopiaPlanitia

I do think people should stop targeting or boycotting particular religions and charities. It is power relationships between human beings, and it has to be said it is also more men than women for sexual exploitation- HOWEVER that does not mean women are ‘safe’, just that men are much less safe.

I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to stop donating for international aid, unless you can accept that giving people you don’t know access to your money means it is a toss-up what they do with it. I do donate to charities, one of which works overseas, but I accept that there is always a risk.

Tha is for highlighting OP. I have donated to MSF for years, but I am going to cancel my dire t debit now and instead give it to a charity that doesn't have these kind of issues. Any suggestions?

This is now the third thread this week in which all I can say is when is society going to say men cant be trusted.

That they need to be monitored whether at home or overseas.

I suspect even dating back to when the Victorians were "taking christianity" to various parts of the world. And it went un noticed or not spoken about.

But we have been seeing stories like this for the past few decades.

Surely any organisation offering this type of support should be made to show they monitor those directly delivering aid, and what system they have for those receiving aid to be able to raise incidents etc..

Shouldn't all aid agencies have to sign up to a code of conduct and be regularly investigated, and display the reports of them each year.

Hearing about this abuse years later just isn't acceptable. Nor is the hand ringing.

What does it say about the level of supervision and DBS type checks these charities do.

Or again (which is what I have said on the other threads) we just have to say sorry, this service is too sensitive and important and only women will be employed.

Good luck finding one! It's increasingly looking as if the only 'safe' options are ones with no actual contact between providers and beneficiary. Which rather limits the options.

I recently read about this organisation (don't think it's a registered charity) https://www.victoryafghanistan.org/ providing online education for girls and women in Afghanistan. I've not done due diligence on it yet, but they would have limited opportunity for harm. And the girls are in such a dire situation that it probably can't be made worse by outside help.

And you'd hope Lumos would be OK - although promotion of family-based care isn't looking too great this week either.

This is sickening. I now mistrust male overseas charity workers. I’m cancelling my dd to MSF.

They’re sick men. Very sick.

When I heard this last week, it made me cry. I've left quite a large donation to MSF in my will and thought they were the good guys. Not sure what to do now.

I have a direct debit set up to MSF, I thought they were ok! Didn't know about earlier scandal. Guess I'll be cancelling. I also donate to Railway Children and Linda Norgrove Foundation in Afghanistan, hoping they're still ok.

Doesn’t surprise me.

Whenever men wield any sort of power over women (and children) a not insignificant portion will use it to coerce sex from them.

Oxfam I believe had a similar issue with some of their overseas workers a while ago.

There are none. It’s not the charity it’s men.

Bearing in mind a lot of this seems to have come from an internal report and internal whistleblowers (if I'm wrong please correct me)
That doesn't make it OK and doesn't mean that the people responsible for safeguarding and at the top aren't at fault (obviously the men actually doing the exploitation as well but that goes without saying).

But I guess Im worried about creating perverse incentives to cover up. Charities with internal reporting structures and whistleblowers are more likely to be hit by a public backlash and damage to their income and ability to provide life saving care. Presumably a charity that successfully keeps it all under wraps looks good. I think it's very clear charities like MSF and probably the whole sector need much better reporting structures and safeguarding training (and bystander training) to stop this happenning. But you can see how the incentive might lie in the other direction.

We have been hearing reports like this for years.

I just dont understand, assuming there is good intent, why hasn't this charity sector got its act together and worked out how, if the must employ men, they will properly supervise them.

It just isn't good enough.

Or is it the usual denial, of only a few bad apples.

I dont care if it is only one bad apple, who ever runs the charity must ensure that supervision means they never, ever have the opportunity to exploit women like this.

Or as i said before, only women are employed.